Events

MINSK, 21 January (BelTA) - I hope our meeting will be an open dialogue on the topics relevant to the society, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said when opening a meeting with the heads of the largest Belarusian mass media outlets, BelTA learned.

Alexander Lukashenko noted that similar meetings with representatives of mass media are regular in Belarus, although in the past they used to involve more mass media outlets and more journalists. “Frankly I have to hold large meetings with journalists but I do not really like the format because they are like a lecture. In a small circle of interested and knowledgeable people there are more chances to discuss the issues that are the biggest concern for the people, and try to look into the near future,” the President said.

The head of state also explained why heads of certain mass media outlets were invited for the meeting. According to him, the main criterion was the impact and the credibility of a media outlet in the society. “When we were preparing for the meeting I said that we need to look at how people react to a media outlet. We used many criteria and we saw that these were the leading mass media of Belarus, may someone like it or not, but this is true,” said the President. Alexander Lukashenko also assumed that after the meeting journalists will be speculating as to who and why was invited for the meeting with the President. Therefore he chose to pre-empt possible reasoning and immediately explain the choices.

Alexander Lukashenko expects an open dialogue with the participants of the meeting. The head of state called for focusing on the discussion of the future, not reviewing the results of the past year. “I believe we have already spent enough time on discussing last year’s results, we know our shortfalls, internal and external reasons. We need to come to more conceptual issues. It is difficult to predict how Belarus will change in some 5-15 years’ time. But if there are such questions, I will express my opinion and we will try to find a joint stance,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

“I am ready for a conversation. We are not going to determine its format. Let us have a dialogue today. Let us talk about today’s most urgent issues,” Alexander Lukashenko stated.